In The Deep
by SeungSeiRan
Summary: He smiled. "A little birdie told me you fell into this place." Steve x Asuka.


**So I was playing through Final Fantasy X the other day and the Tidus/Yuna scene in the water was _very _inspiring ;). Although it's not that great, it felt nice to revisit one of my favorite yet most often over-looked couples.**

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own Tekken or any of the characters depicted in this ficlet of mine.**

* * *

The ache had started off as tiny black dot in the middle of her heart. As time and trouble had taken their tolls, the dot had sucked in more of the blackness that it needed to grow. So grow it did. The ache swelled, rose, and overflowed into every inch of her being. Nothing physical, nothing which could be killed by a pill or syrup. Just a terribly cold and lonely ache...

She never chose to walk these streets alone for the sheer fun of it. Because it was anything but fun yet she still was in need of a distraction.

Home was no longer that safe refuge it had once been. The ache had seeped in through every floorboard, window, nook, and cranny until it leaked onto the very top of her head. The drops would drip over her hair in the shower and as she lay in bed staring at the ceiling. Quick and cunning as raindrops, they'd stream down flyaway strands of brown hair and hit pale shoulders hard as hail. The ache had turned her away from the first source of safety she had been born into... family.

She knew they waited faithfully for her late return. As loving a gesture it was, it still didn't keep her feet from continuing their nightly haunting of dark, neon-lit streets.

Friends did what they did best; listen sympathetically and try to offer cheerful solace. The chalk-white letters on the blackboard would blur and the pen in her hand would slip out to hit the floor with a tinny, plastic clatter...

And nothing would ever change things.

Sometimes, she'd stand out and wait in her cage for the tides to recede. The sun would sigh in dismay and shine on dryly, not caring if the rays burned her strength to cinders. Most of the time, she'd bow her head low in defeat and walk away from the battlefield, bleeding from the aging sores. At night, she'd lie awake and face the pain, replacing her dreams with her own sketches of past realities when she'd been too deaf to listen to the sound of her heart within her. With morning's ascension, the dreams would drift in. She'd watch herself fly like she used to before being shot down to earth by Fate's arrow.

Night had become her closest companion. In it, she found a familiar dark and melancholy kindred spirit. As the sky bled red over the distant horizon, she sneaked out into the comfort that only solitude promised her.

Solitude never kept that promise. But it didn't stop her from believing it.

Tonight was the same night. The same moon, the same garish yellow street-lights, the same world that trundled onwards in joyful ignorance whilst she stood on in pain. Trying to keep up with that very same world, she trudged forwards. Random strangers walked against her direction, not caring to wonder about her. She inhaled the bitter scents of cigarette smoke, cheap perfume, and withering jasmine strands from fellow nocturnal walkers, each casting aside their own dreams for a make-believe reality reminiscent of smiles and sunshine which never burned.

They were the same nameless, faceless strangers she never bothered to think about. As soon as she passed them, they fell to nothing but frail shadows in the dark. Alone once more, she bowed her head and walked on.

The ache began to flow down from her shoulders and struck the length of her spine to the bones jutting out from her rib-cage. If she had a bottle of hard liquor in her hands, she would have immediately downed the whole bottle if it would take it away. Better to feel fire rather than tears at the back of your throat. The world just shook its head at her and let her wander far off into the unreachable twilight blue horizon where the sun had breathed its last for the day.

The light on the traffic-signal turned green above her bare head. She paid no heed and crossed...

* * *

She felt the cold leave her once the water covered her in a warm embrace. Feeling nothing but the heat and the ache, she started to quiver, then curl into herself as she'd done as a child hiding beneath the sheets from imaginary winged beings that grazed her skin with the tips of their wings. Her wings within her back remained folded and dead for want of a reason to fly. Inside the worn depths of a pair of listless eyes, reason and logic ceased to exist and slithered down, down, down,...

Head before feet, the abyss loomed closer and closer...

Blue waters darkened to black...

The black reached out to her in limpid anticipation.

A flash of blue broke the black into two jagged edges...

The blue was as blue as the sky she'd once flown through. Blue as hope, blue as innocence, blue as sad sweetness. Blue as only his eyes were, she remembered as a strong, large hand pulled her up towards him.

"... You..."

And that was all she could bear to whisper.

"A little birdie told me you fell into this place." he grinned. "I'm surprised. Accident-prone as always?"

The ache was melting. Her feet felt like dancing but she decided to let her arms wrap themselves around his solid warmth. Ecstasy spouted from the hollow void in her heart, washing away the pain from the tips of her hair to the toes on her feet. The once dead eyes gleamed with sad glory at a long-awaited dream. But it felt more than what words could say, even if it had to be less than real. But what if it wasn't? His hand on her cheek, her lips on his, this shared pleasure, what else could it be but true?

So... why?

"I'm so sorry..." she managed.

"About what?"

"... I never told you..."

"... And?"

"I... I'm sorry..."

For the first time in ages, she allowed herself the release that came with tears. "I'm sorry... sorry... so sorry..."

"Shhh..."

So he held like he would have if it hadn't been a dream. The tears were promptly wiped away and the fears were put to rest.

"It's alright, you don't have to blame yourself."

"But - "

"Why don't you fly like you used to? Forgot about your wings?"

"I can't... they're broken."

"They'll heal."

"You mean..."

"Mm-hm." He nodded, smiling sadly. "You'll have to do it without me."

She clutched him tighter. "What if I won't?"

"Tough luck. I know you'll get there soon..."

The trailing of his cheerful voice stoked her fears to life again. "Not without you."

"Then I'll be the wind beneath your wings... I'll help you take to the skies and carry you onwards. Once you're way up there - "

He paused and gazed up at the surface.

" - I'll watch you from where I am. With a smile on my face when I see you crying happy tears."

With trepidation, she followed his eyes. "... Promise?"

"I promise."

The ache began to throb in her veins as his grip around her loosened. With a courageous yet knowing twinkle in his eyes, he leaned in closer and murmured in her ear.

"... You know... if you could just keep even the smallest of places in your heart for me... I'll always live on in there and in your memories."

One last kiss and he let her go.

"Take care, Asuka..."

* * *

Opening her eyes to the red and orange lights of police cars and an ambulance, she felt the ache return to her like an old coat being tossed on her body. Except that it didn't hurt as much as it should have and her bleeding had lessened to a dull sting. Inside her, the tips of her abandoned wings twitched and stretched to be freed...

She watched him turn and walk away before smiling like he'd wanted her to.

"I'll try."


End file.
